"Bad Company" Sets a New Standard
Battlefield: Bad Company sets a new standard, in my opinion. Not only does this game bring a highly enjoyable single player experience, but it also has an addicting multi-player game. Bad Company was announced back in 2006 and made by Electronic Arts. This highly anticipated game was well worth the wait, and you're about to find out why. Bad Company is also the first Battlefield game to be exclusive to consoles. Previous games have been brought to consoles from the PC. This game feels like it was meant for a console, which is good for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners who have this game.
Story
You are Preston Marlowe. You are a part of a the B-Company, filled with all the "losers" that were sent to war instead of thrown in jail. Your squad includes Haggard, Sweet Water and sergeant Redford. You may develop some feelings towards each character as you go through out the game because they each have unique personalities you will probably never forget. You're sent to a fictional war in Russia. The army doesn't really care about your squad, you're just sent in so they don't have to waste their highly valued troops. After some time in the game you begin to find boxes of gold. This leads you and your squad on a journey to find a whole lot of gold, and get yourselves into a whole lot of trouble. Throughout the journey you will get a few laughs from jokes that are actually funny from your squad members. This alone ads depth to the story by showing personality to characters. Sure your in the middle of war, but these jokes are just plain funny. It could take away from the reality of war, but overall i think the jokes are funny and help develop personalities of characters. It's really something you never see in a game, especially a first person shooter. The story definitely isn't as deep as a game like Bioshock or Mass Effect, but for a shooter it is very well written and enjoyable.
Sound
The sound in this game is probably the most realistic war sounding game out there. From rocket launchers, to hand guns, vehicles, or your assault rifle, everything sounds realistic and embraces you even deeper into the game. If you have surround sound i really can't imagine how it would be. This is one of the few games that actually makes me feel like this is real and im there. Battlefield: Bad Company sets a new standard in the sound department and should encourage future games to develop more embracing sound effects.
Graphics:
The graphics are pretty good, but they aren't the best. You may notice a small film grain. Explosions are done very well, as well as buildings being destroyed. With tons of different environments the colors are pretty to look at, especially the sunsets and rivers. I'm sure you will be happy with the graphics if you play this game because they are good and the Gameplay really doesn't make you think about graphics. If i had to rate the graphics out of ten i would probably give them an eight. If we had never seen games such as gears of war or call of duty 4 you would probably think the graphics were amazing.
Gameplay
The best part of bad company. You have tons of weapons and vehicles to choose from. Vehicles include: helicopter, tank, truck, mini tank, boat, and a few others. Most first person shooters are narrow and make you follow a certain path. In Bad Company, you choose your way to get to your destination. There is also a large map you can explore if you want to try and find more gold crates. If you can't find an open door, equip your grenade launcher and just blow your way through a building. There are tons of gas barrels and flamable things to blow up near buildings, which encourages you to blow even more stuff up, which is really fun to watch and hear. The explosions are amazing. They seem realistic and not just certain parts destroy on every building. Any part of a building can be destroyed except for the framework. Every gun also feels unique and you will acquire new guns throughout the game and get achievements for acquiring so many. If you die in game, you automatically respawn from not to far away, and any damage you have done, or enemies you have killed are still dead. This may be a bad thing to some people but brings some relief to me, especially since there are some tough moments in the game. AI is also very intelligent for most of the game, as they will hide behind objects and try to avoid your fire, but some do stand out in the open which is fine for me because i can get an easy shot off. You also will have several different gadgets. These can include rocket launchers, air strike attack, drill to repair vehicles, and a few more.
Multiplayer
This is where all previous games have shined. Bad Company shines here as well. There are five classes to play with online. A few of these include: Assault, Recon, Support, and specialist. When you get tired of one you can always change it up which adds more replay ability. There is only one online mode to play but there are future plans to release downloadable content which will add another online mode to play. Currently the online mode, you are either an attacker or defender. Defenders have to defend their gold crates while attackers try to destroy them. There is also a rank up system like in Call of Duty 4, which encourages you to play more to increase your rank to unlock different types of gadgets and guns. This game is nothing like Call of Duty however. In call of duty 3 they brought vehicles, which in my opinion was a disaster. In Call of Duty 4 they took away vehicles and you had a solid shooter. In Bad Company, they have vehicles and the game is still a solid shooter online. Everything seems balanced. Also one shot will not kill you in battlefield. You need to have a strategy in this game. In my opinion, this is a good change, its not your ordinary run and gun game.
Overall
Battlefield: Bad Company is a really great game that successfully pulls off both multiplayer and single player very well. I gave this game a 10/10 because i really enjoyed it. No the game is not perfect, but it is something that you will want to keep in your game library, and probably play for quite some time. Any fans of previous games will like this, as well as new comers. I would suggest this to any fan of first person shooters and especially to those who like driving vehicles in games. So definitely buy this game if you like any of the following: explosions, vehicles, large weapon choice, first person shooter, fun online, interesting and funny story, true next gen sound. Hopefully this review has helped you decide whether or not Battlefield: Bad Company is right for you.
Note - This review was first written on gamespot, by me (Poker360).
